We’ve had a ton of fun this winter getting out and enjoying the local groomed trails, hitting the races and rides, and mixing in a bit of fresh air to our indoor miles. Even with spring looking to be on the way, we aren’t planning on putting away our fat bikes for good.
Here in Traverse City, we have a dedicated group of volunteer groomers that work to maintain fat bike and non-motorized trails in the Pere Marquette Forest. Spring, summer, and fall, the trail is known as the Vasa Supply Road Singletrack. Once the snow falls, however, it takes on its winter moniker, the Winter Sports Singletrack. Using equipment purchased through local donations and support from Short's Brewing Company, the groomers spend between two and six hours grooming nearly 20 miles of trail with different loops and sections. This year, Northern Michigan Mountain Bike Association has groomed over 1500 miles when you combine the WST, the Cadillac Pathway, Glacial Hills Pathway, and the new Winter Sports Trail at Leelanau State Park. That combines to over 400 volunteer hours!
Those efforts have made fat bikes and wide tires a fixture in our neck of the woods, so much so that many riders stick with their wide tires well after the snow is melted and the dirt ready to ride. It's inspired a whole culture of winter riding that has really brought together a tight-knight community of cyclists, albeit in snow pants and ski goggles!
Depending on where you live, fat bikes are either a legitimate fixture on the trails year-round, or a bit of a curiosity. With the snow melting quickly, some folks are thinking about hanging up their fat bike for the year, while others are switching wheels to 27.5” plus or 29” plus, or just ready to keep their wide tires on for the dirt.
Either way, we’ve got a good mount for your summer plans. For transportation and long-term storage, we offer a fork mount for fat bikes that lets you drop the front wheel and secure the fork with your thru axle. This is the most secure, bomb-proof way to store your fat bike in a trailer, or in the garage when you aren’t planning on riding it every day. Even the most organized storage spaces can get a bit busy, and the fork mount offers a way to store your bike so that nothing can move it or knock it over. The combo fork mount works for 150 thru axle and 142 quick release fork spacing, which covers most fat bikes made in the past year or two.
If you’re one of the riders who stays on the same bike all year long, we’ve got another solution for you. Our wheelie mounts let you keep the front wheel on. For road bikes and mountain bikes, that’s not a big deal. For fat bikes, we wanted to make sure we had a mount that was wide enough to securely hold a five inch tire without the risk of getting knocked or pushed off. That meant squaring off and lengthening our Wheelie mount to accommodate the additional tire width. After some testing on 3.8”, 4.6” and 4.8” tires, we think the extra length offers a noticeable more secure hook for your favorite ride.
Take care of your fat bike right with the mount that works best for your storage situation and frequency of use. We certainly hope you're getting out there every day!